NGE: Splendid Hope
by irishman91
Summary: There is always hope; even in the most unlikely of places, Be it under the banner of great new Prince or along side a child that has embraced the greatness of the sun.
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter One: The Exaltation of Asuka Langley Soryu**

Ryoji Kaji liked Asuka, he really did. If he were to have a daughter she would be like Asuka: Brave, strong, smart and beautiful, even with her flaws. Like her massive ego and hair-trigger temper he loved the girl like she was his own.

"Kaji, do you like my new Plugsuit?"

He could live without her massive Daddy Issues, however.

The rather loud query was followed by said red-head was followed series of poses that if they were performed by, say, Misato would have him all hot and bothered with flash backs to college zipping through his skull. Since it was Asuka, It was both adorable and very uncomfortable; his strike range wasn't quite that low. He needed to defuse the situation in a manner that would not upset Asuka while at the same time reinforcing the fact that he was a grown man and that Asuka was a thirteen year old girl who was under his guardianship.

For any other man this would be an impossible task, Asuka was like a kicked puppy with her attempts to gain affection from him in some regards, always trying harder and harder to get the love that she so desperately wanted. In the past it hadn't been so bad, the girl generally just hung out of him when she had been younger. And to be honest hadn't minded the attention; it felt good to be needed by someone.

Then puberty had hit.

What had once been hugs and childish attempts to gain favour turned into clumsy attempts at seduction. Posing and wearing slinky outfits to try and get him into bed. Kaji was many things but he was not what Asuka wanted him to be.

I.E, A paedophile.

So he gently rebuked the girl and tried to get across the idea that he was a bit too old for her, and most of the time she got the message and backed off.

This time she had brought out all the big guns, her form fitting red Plugsuit that showed of her toned body and her developing bust very well, she had gone out of her way to style her hair immaculately, it fell over her shoulders from the sides of her head where the style was held in place by her A-10 Barrettes.

To defuse this situation would require the most careful of handling, if Asuka was like an abused puppy when she was trying to get his affection, she was like a cornered wolf when upset; prone to lashing out irrationally at the person had hurt her.

So Kaji did what he always did when cornered, he smiled like the devil and winged.

**PAGEPAGEPAGEPAGE**

Kaji just smiled at her and Asuka felt her knees grow weak.

He was dead sexy after all, sexy enough that in the coming events even Shinji would wake up in a cold sweat after dreams involving Mr Kaji and a can of whipped cream.

Asuka was genius; at thirteen she already had a degree in advanced Meta-Physical Biology, the branch of science that her mother specialised in, a fact that Asuka ignored with all of her might. She was genius, but she was also a thirteen year old emotionally damaged girl who in a sharp contrast with intellectual intelligence which was easily genius level, was her lack understanding of her own emotions.

Asuka knew more about AT Theory than half of the science staff on Project E but when it came to actually understanding how she felt and expressing those feelings, she was completely lost. Asuka loved Kaji, there was no doubt in her mind she did. There is a difference between love and sex though, something Asuka had yet to learn.

So when Kaji smiled at her with _That_ smile she thought he had finally accepted her affection, that someone would finally say that they loved her.

Of course it didn't go as planned.

Instead of sweeping her up in his manly arms and making love to her, he mussed her hair that she had spent three hours preparing just for this moment, he didn't notice the perfume or the makeup she had put on, she could have lived with it. She was that desperate for any kind of affection.

But, he had to make her feel worse.

Still smiling he said "You look great my kido" his tone was cheery and condescending "the boys will be all over you soon enough."

It was a cleaver ploy by Kaji really; play up her ego while at the same time reminding her of that fact that he was basically her father by using the nick name that he had used when she was just a little girl, it would have worked. If Kaji had looked a little deeper he could have avoided the resulting mess.

From Asuka's point of view it was a total rejection of her, of her love. All the time spent trying to impress him, the hours spent on her hair, the really expensive bottle of perfume she had bought just an occasion such as this.

She felt like crying.

**PAGEPAGEPAGE**

Kaji had fucked up big time, really fucked up.

Normally Asuka would pout, something he found adorable, and then she would sulk for a bit before bouncing back to her perky and outgoing self.

But this time it was different; she just stared up at him with a look that spoke of utter devastation, this time was different, this she had taken his rejection hard and in all honesty he had no idea of how to reassure her that he didn't mean to upset her.

He wasn't psychic. He didn't know how Asuka thought, he could guess, but he could never really get how she perceived things.

If either one of them actually managed to say what they felt they would change their relationship for the better Asuka wouldn't have minded being likened to Kaji's child. It was what she was looking for in the first place, Asuka was to damaged to say what she felt.

He didn't have the guts to say what he felt either, he was a coward. Too afraid to try and forge a stronger connection with the girl he had raised. So he let her shake his hand off and walk off, back ramrod straight and shoulders tensed. She always did that when she tried to stop herself from crying, she was failing horribly this time.

He sighed, not even bothering to mask his sadness at how the situation how had degenerated, He should've been more delicate with this, Asuka was a very sensitive young girl, even if she tries to hide it, especially when she tries to hide it.

It was fixable; but it would require a lot of effort, more effort than he had out into his relationship with Misato.

A lot more

Kaji's plans to gain back Asuka's favour, mostly involving a LOT of chocolate, were forestalled with a deafening and high pitched screamed.

"_ASUKA!"_

Kaji broke into a run

**PAGEPAGEPAGE**

Asuka lived in NERV-3, it was basically an oversized bunker that could house thousands of people underground for centuries, with massive hydroponic farms and water purifiers; NERV-3 was designed as an Ark for humanity. One of the last hopes of humanity if Third Impact were ever to occur, the sprawling under-city that was hardened against nuclear strikes, EMP blasts, Biological warfare and unknown to the vast majority of people, Against an Ant-AT-Field.

While Asuka knew it as an underground city where she had spent most of her life, NERV-3 had an older history. Before NERV gained its mandate to fight the Angels it was known as GEHIRN. The part of facility that Asuka was currently stomping through was one of the older parts of the complex, less than two hundred meters away from where Kaji had betrayed her.

This area was series of walk ways suspended over an empty hanger area, which is supposed to be used to hold an Evangelion unit lying on its back. Her own Unit-02 was in the adjoining hanger awaiting transportation to Tokyo-3 when the inevitable call for a _Real_ Pilot came through.

The thoughts of battle and glory in the war against the angels did little to sooth her incredibly sour mood, she had put in a lot of effort into trying to win over that insufferable bastard that was Herr Kaji, only to be reject in most humiliating way possible. She wouldn't have minded that much if he had just came out and said that he didn't like her that way, but no., he had to treat her like a child.

He didn't want her.

She forced back a sob and rubbed her eyes with the back of her hands and started sub-consciously muttering a sentence to herself.

"Big girls don't cry, big girls don't cry…."

That was the mantra she always started when she was upset, to help her force back the emotions, it wasn't really working this time though, and her uterus was doing a good job of making sure that she felt worse than she normally would have. Her bout of self-hatred and shame was interrupted by the sounds of echoing footsteps coming towards her, a strange occurrence since only really her or Misato and Kaji came around here anymore, an extra EVA hanger was useless with an EVA to occupy it so people mostly let her have free run in here since she was a post-toddler. She had birthday parties here for God's sake! Almost everyone agreed that this was her private spot! Even the Sub-Commander who ran NERV-3 generally regarded this place as hers!

Letting her anger cover her like a blanket, she let go of her sorrow for the moment, she had interlopers to deal with, in the most passive aggressive manner possible by Pmessing thirteen year old girl with years of combat training under her belt.

The interlopers in question rounded the corner into the hanger and came into view, almost immediately did Asuka do a double take; there were two of them, men in black suits. A lot like some members of S-2 that had been around her all of her life, though the similarities to NERV's suit squad ended there.

The first strange thing about them was how identical they were, same size down to an inch, same exact cloths, even the S-2 guys customised their outfits a bit with different ties and sunglasses, these jokers wore the exact same style of glass and the same black ties. They looked like twins as well, freakishly identical twins; they were both 5.11, pale with shaved skulls with no sign of facial hair, twins in an almost unnatural sense of the word. They freaked Asuka out.

"Are you Ms Asuka Langley Soryu?"

The question snapped Asuka out of her daze; she gave her head a slight shake and scowled, before starting her verbal offensive.

"That's me jar-head, what do you want, idiot? Asuka growled out, she was in no mood for some S-2 meat-head looking to lay down some authority with her, better people than these two twits had tried and failed.

Instead of the expect look of frustration or annoyance they both just smiled sadly at her. At the exact same time as one another, Asuka took an unconscious step back; there was something just _wrong _about these two, something that set her off on an instinctual level.

"I am sorry Ms Langley, She Who Lives In Her Name has called for you death, we will try to make this as painless as possible."

The worst thing about how they said it was how seemed they would truly regret what they were about to do.

Asuka took another step back as the two of them drew knifes of a strange silver metal that shone with a light that she had never seen before, thankfully for Asuka years of combat training kicked to save her hide.

She ducked under the initial strike and went for the one on the right that had spoken, ducking under his second swipe with his blade and kicked him in the stomach hard enough send him doubling over, she then used this opportunity to palm strike him in the nose. She hit him hard enough to send the cartilage through his Frontal Lobe, killing him instantly.

He went tumbling back with the force of the blow before slumping on the ground, blood pooling from his nose to the floor beneath him, Asuka ignored the slumped man and focused on his other half, the one had had managed to avoid being kill by a teenage girl on her period in ten seconds.

She panted from the brief but tiring exertion she had just done, the adrenaline managing to full everything into a pleasant haze for the moment. She forced back a hysterical giggle that nearly escaped her lips, giggling like a ten year old in front of your enemy was not something one really wanted to do.

She and the surviving started to suit circle one another in the dimly lit walkway, each trying to find an opening to strike, neither willing go for the first strike, apparently the goon had revised his estimations of her after seeing his brother go down so quickly.

They kept circling each other for a few more seconds, him with his strange silver knife in his right hand and Asuka in a low stance with her left palm out forward and her right in fist near her body, ready to strike out.

It was the suit who decided to break the stalemate by lunging at her with left horizontal strike, she dodged and he followed up with a right diagonal slash that nearly takes her head off. This goes on for a few more seconds, him trying to disembowel her and Asuka dodging by the skin of her teeth. He was getting impatient though; slashes getting sloppy, faster with a lot less accuracy.

His lack of patience would be his downfall; he lunged with straight stab, trying to go for her stomach, she side stepped his lunge and caught his knife arm with her left underarm, before bringing her right elbow down of his wrist fracturing the bone, making him drop his knife.

While disarming him was a sound plan, grappling him was not, he was at least thirty six pounds to her fourteen. He threw himself at the girl; knocking her off balance with a shoulder check before grappling her to the ground, they both struggled on the ground for a few seconds, both trying to gain the upper-hand. It was only years of training with Misato that allowed her to wrestle herself into his chest.

From his position on his back on the floor he reached up and used his good arm to strangle her, his thick fingers digging in the skin of her throat, cutting off her breathing. Her vision began to blur, her lungs burned and her head felt light, in a panic she wrapped both of her arms around the arm of the man at his elbow and twisted her body, his arm twisting with her. He let groan through gritted teeth, Asuka let savage smile at that, that one had to hurt.

She didn't have the strength left in her limbs to beat him down, her arms were shaking with weakness and her breath came in short gasps, in desperation she wrapped her shaking hands around his throat and squeezed.

It isn't an easy thing to strangle a grown man; while her training gave her an advantage for sure, but he was a thirty six pound pile of muscle and even with both arms broken in a suitably horrifying and deserving fashion, he still managed to put up a struggle, flailing his broken limbs and trying to buck her off of him. She held on though, her fingers digging into his neck, chocking the life out of him.

After what seemed like hours his struggles finally started to lesson, before finally stopping, His lips trying to draw a breath that would never come, his head finally slumping to ground with glassy eyes staring at nothing.

Asuka slumped off of her enemies cooling corpse onto the cool ground, her breath coming in short, panicked breaths, she had never believed that she would have to kill a person like that, in all her training was based on the idea that she would fight in her Unit-02 against horrifying abominations.

Not against her own species, not against another person.

The realization of what had happened, what she had done, finally set, causing a wave of nausea to rise from stomach, Asuka shakily got to her feet and stumbled to the edge of the walk-way before flopping onto the side rail and puking her lunch out over the side.

Sobs wrecked her body once the adrenalin wore off, the panic and shock of what had just happened finally hitting her.

Someone had tried to kill her, someone she didn't know had tried to have killed for some unknowable reason, and they had almost succeeded. She was so exhausted from her fight that didn't try to stop herself from crying.

"I need... to... to "Her normally bright and razor-sharp mind was clouded with fear and panic, something that would send a normal person into a panic, a way that was sure to make a situation worse.

But she wasn't just anyone she was Asuka fucking Langley Soryu and she was nothing if hardy, she wiped her eyes with the palm of her hand, let herself sob for a couple of minutes before steeling her shaken resolve.

"Alright... alright Asuka calm down and think, I need to get to Kaji, and he'll know that to do"

It is quite normal for a child to go to their parents when upset or scared.

It a plan firmly in mind she dragged herself up from the railing and stumbled towards the doors, she'd find Kaji, get this mess sorted out, and then use Kaji as an oversized Teddy bear when she stayed in bed for a at least a week.

Her plans were cut short by the sound of two sets of heavy feet clanking in unison on the metal of the walkway sound out from behind her, she freezes and slowly turns her to see a set of goons that could have been carbon-copies of the last pair that she killed.

If she was anyone else she would have despaired against the unfairness of it all, another two enemies that were here to kill her, just after she had killed two other assassins.

But she wasn't just anyone she was Asuka, she buried her fear and despair under a blanket of pure, unadulterated rage climbed its way up from her stomach and came out of her throat in shrill scream before she charged at her attackers, all of her fatigue quickly submerged under a wave of anger.

**PAGEPAGEPAGE**

He had no name, not any more.

As servent of She Who Lives In Her Name he gave up his name and his identity, he and his brothers and sisters would all be the same, all the differences that had plagued mankind since their evolution into a sapient species. She had ended all of that for him and his family. And with enough effort on their part they could end those problems for the rest of humanity, She would help them all live in a perfect world, a perfect hierarchy.

She herself had spoken to them a week ago, that their final victory was close, but before the end of all that separated humanity from true unity, the way needed to be opened. She had spoken in voice like silk, all that they needed to do in order to save humanity was to ensure that her messengers succeed in their mission.

In order to assist in this mission enemies of Her Messengers needed to be removed. One such target was the slight teenage girl that was rushing towards them while screaming. dashing over the cooling corpes of his two brothers that had been sent ahead to located their prey, they had apparently jumped the gun and tried to go after her with out back and had apparently suffered for their haste.

He and his remain brother rushed at her with their Soul Steel knives, intending to use the hyper sharp blades to end the fight quickly and messily.

His plans did not of course go to plan, the girl slides through both of their slashes and hit his brother with a round house kick that snaps his neck like a stick of candy cane.

He gritted his teeth as the girl back-flipped from his third fallen brothers body, a savage smirk on her face even as her exhaustion returned in full force, the smirk her face driving him insane.

All they had wanted to do was save the world, as long as there was differences humanity would doom itself, only with the removal of these barriers would there be peace. But this little bitch had to kill his brothers, slaughtering them like cattle, mocking their dreams and hopes, mocking their belief in Her.

He rushed her with a scream on his lips and a fury that actually managed to surpass the girls own.

If she had been less tired she could have avoided the stab altogether, in her current state however, all she managed to do was stop the blade from going all the way through her skull.

It still pierced her eye like a grape, however.

She stumbled to the ground a few feet away while letting out a short scream followed by a pain-dazed ramblings.

"Kill... Kill..."

He smirked at her pain, she had killed those that he had loved, she deserved all of her suffering.

"I'm gonna kill you!"

She stumbled to her feet, hand held over her ruined socket before she clumsily charged him with her fist raised.

He dodged her blows, slowed by exhaustion and pain, he toyed with her for a few seconds, savouring the look of pain and frustration that marred her pretty little face, before he decided to end it.

He sides steps her strike with her right arm and slashes through her fist, bisecting her limb up to just before her the shoulder.

Her scream echoed through the base, his cover was blown but he couldn't bring himself to care at the moment. The girl didn't even bother trying to get up. She just screamed while staring down at her ruined limb. He smiled at her screams, this was more than enough vengeance for his slain family, She Who Lived In Her Name would be disappointed with him. She always shown favour for a certain dis-passion in her acolytes, this petty venegence would be a black mark on his standing, but he could live with that.

He made is move to finish her; a slice across her throat, long enough to see her fear and pain.

"ASUKA"

**PAGEPAGEPAGE**

He had heard her scream and had ran as fast as his legs could take him, he had thought that she had fallen off of the walkway or had kicked a wall hard enough that she had broken her foot again like back when she was ten and her father and her step-mother had visited.

He hadn't expected Asuka to be lying on the floor maimed and sobbing, he hadn't expected to see three dead assassins and one living assailant going to finish the ruined child.

Asuka herself was in a terrible shape, she lay sprawled in a heap sobbing to herself while her undamaged hand was covering an eye that was pumping blood and her right arms was a ruined, bloody mess that would mean Asuka's death. The girl would, if the wound was treated, live for another few minutes before she bleed out.

Asuka was only thirteen.

It was little wonder that Kaji screamed and drew his service pistol, emptying the clip at man.

Kaji was decent with a gun, he was a NERV Special Inspector after all, he had spent hours training at the gun range just in case things went South. But he wasn't a soldier; as a fighter Asuka outstripped him by miles.

He emptied the 15 rounds of his HK pistol missing with all but one of the shoots, his target proving to have almost supernatural reflexes, dodging fourteen rounds before the last one clipped him in the shoulder.

He stumbled with the impact of the bullet, but managed shrug it off and charged at Kaji; faster than Kaji could reload, the assassin was on him with his knife flying in shimmering silver arc that bit into his chest, slicing into bone, it missed all his major arteries and it didn't slice through the bone of his rib cage completely, meaning his organs weren't damaged.

Still hurt like a bitch though.

He fell to the ground with a gasp clutching at his bleeding chest, stunned.

The cause of his current agony walked towards him slowly, apparently having been a student of the dramatic walk, he stopped at his feet for a few seconds, apparently for the dramatic effect, before grabbing him by the hair and pulling him up, intent to slice his throat.

He managed to glare at him and spit at his killer's face, the glob of spit hitting the bastard on the sunglasses, he didn't react though just staring at him before he shrugged and brought his blade to Kaji's throat intend to end his life.

Kaji's rather pathetic end was interrupted by a burst of golden light that warmed him like sunlight, turned his head and saw something that made his jaw drop and his heart shudder in hope.

Asuka stood in a pillar of of gold liquid light burst fourght from her very being; her ruined eyed had somehow healed and both of her eyes seemed to glow with a startling sapphire. her hair had come undone from her clips and it to had seemed to have changed, it was now a bright golden-red and her wounded arm was now at her side whole.

And a Golden Symbol of the Sun shined from her brow.

"Get"

"The."

"Fuck."

"Away".

"From."

"HIM!"


	2. Chapter 2

**Shinji's Hard Day!** **_  
_**

Gendo Ikari frowned at the urgent message that had been sent from NERV-03, according to said report the Second-Child had been attacked by an unknown party and had been severely wounded defending herself and her handler, wounds that would have assured her demise; either by bleeding out or by suicide when her wounds had made it impossible for her to pilot. Well, the wounds would have normally been the end of her either way.

Except for a small detail.

The girl, Asuka, had gotten up despite her horrific injuries, that in itself was not much of a surprise, the girl was as stubborn has her mother twice over. What had really shocked everyone involved, including her assassin, and was the main cause of the urgency of the message, was what she had done: Her wounds had healed in seconds with no scars and she had suffered no lasting damage in her arm.

Not to mention that the girl had become so mind bogglingly _strong_, the blow that had impacted the last assailant had caved the mans chest in, she had also shattered the current on foot land/speed record, having gone twice as fast as the last holder.

Then she had started to bloody glow like a miniature sun! The Science Division, particularly the current Meta-Physics and Meta-Biology expert Dr Rhineheart, had wanted to perform some rather invasive operations on her AT-Field and her biology in order figure out what had exactly happened to her, with little regard for her health. They argued the startling boost to her Sync-Ratio with her Evangelion, it gone from 73% to 113%, that if they could find away to replicate it, they could give this ability to the rest of the Pilots,and dramatically increase the combat ability of the rest of the Evangelion Corps.

Ms Langley might not survive the brutal testing and experimentation, but they believed that it was worth the lose of unblooded pilot.

He had stared at the screen for several minutes, mulling over the request and weighing up the cost/benefit, before typing his reply:

_Request for intensive investigation of Second Child AT-structure and Physiology denied. Combat effectiveness takes priority, permission for Class-2 AT-Scans and Soul-Structure analysis granted._

_Live Activation Test and Live Combat test are to be performed concurrently, full increase in the combat effectiveness to be evaluated, the defense of Tokyo-03 to take priority, any tests that might effect Pilots Combat ability are banned._

_Supreme Commander of NERV_ _Gendo Ikari_

He sent the message and stared into space for a few more minutes, contemplating his choice: While they could certainly gain information on what ever had happened to the girl, he was loath to loss an asset for a potential gain that might not even pay off, not to mention he would never allow Shinji or Rei to suffer such modifications, he had done enough harm to both of them.

Especially Shinji.

Besides, Kyoko and Yui would never forgive him for abandoning both his son and God-Daughter, if he did that to them, he would never find redemption.

Pushing aside such thoughts and picked up the phone on his desk, security around Shinji and Rei would need to be increased, but first he would call Katsuragi, That woman was the best protection Shinji could ever have at the moment and if she knew that someone was after her kids...

Well, there was a reason why she had both the Victoria Cross and the Medal of honor while she was still alive.

**PAGEPAGEPAGE**

Misato had another late night, again, it had been the third one in a row and quite frankly she was exhausted.

The clean up of the operation for the Fourth Angel was taking far longer than expected, not to mention that it had to be dissected to try and understand its capabilities and how the fuck it managed to do what it did, not to mention the possible abilities of its of course meant that Misato was up to her eyeballs in paper work and making sure that the Science People like Akagi and her minions were doing things safety and not trying to see if they could reactivate the things damn S-2 organ while said organ was still inside the monster.

Never minding the fact that if that happened it would either explode, the most likely outcome, or the damn thing would come back to life, either one would kill them all in suitably brutal fashion.

So here she was, just coming home at 5:30 AM, starving, cranky and wanting to punch Akagi and her annoyingly cute Second, Maya in her cute, innocent, face.

She forced open her door and stumbled in to the apartment bleary eyed and made her way to the kitchen, intending to grab a beer to help her get to sleep, what she wasn't expecting was plate covered and folded note. Blinking in dazed confusion she went over and picked up the note in a dazed and confused manner, she opened it and couldn't help feeling small flutter of happiness jumping to her heart:

_Dinner is here for you Misato, its rice and pork, just put it in the Microwave for five minutes to heat it up_

~Shinji

She blushed, and smiled at his kindness, she really did like the boy, he was such kind child; always trying to cook and clean, though she suspected the last was because he had OCD. Not to mention when he did these little of things for her, well, it was one the few things that made her want to be a mother, she had only really felt like this once before, back with Asuka in Germany, and that had been different than her relationship the the Third Child.

_"Pity he's such a doormat most of the time..."_

Misato immidetly felt guilt gnawing at her stomach for thinking such things, it wasn't Shinji's fault that he was so emotionally stunted by his father and his Aunt and Uncle, and such thoughts wouldn't make helping the boy to get out of his shell any easier, she wanted to help the kid, and bashing on his issues and acting nasty to him wouldn't help at all.

"Wark!"

She started a bit at the sudden noise and turned towards it and smiled, it was Pen-Pen waddling up to as fast as his little, awkward legs could take him before she bent down and scooped him into her arms, said penguin releasing a joyous "Wark!" in celebration of her return.

"Who's a good penguin? You are! Yes you are!"

Misato then promptly buried her face in the genetically modified penguin's stomach and blew the mother of all raspberries, much to the penguin's delight. Her display of maturity and professionalism came to an end when her mobile blared out the Nyan-Cat song, jumping again at the sudden sound, she floundered with her flip-screen phone and an over-excited penguin, eventually, she managed to tuck Pen-Pen under her left arm and grappled with her phone.

"Cursed. Damn. Technological Trends! There! Got you open! you plastic son of bitch!"

_"Captain, I do hope you are not speaking to me in such a manner?"_

Misato paled and spluttered "I-I'm sorry sir! I-I Wasn't speaking to you Sir!" She wasn't to proud to grovel to her really fucking scary boss who had access to a small army of elite special forces.

_"There has been an assassination attempt on the Second-Child, Ms Langley, by an unknown party"_

A ball of lead fell into her stomach "Is she okay! What the fuck happened! Section-2 Dropped the ball on this one! Shit" Working her way through her complete list of German, Russian and Gaelic and English swears words, she rather violently spoke of Section-2's complete inability to do their jobs.

_"Enough"_

One word, that was all it took. "_As I was trying to say"_ His tone took a slightly annoyed edge that made her cringe "_There was an assassination attempt on the Second-Child at around 6:00 PM German time, thankfully she managed to eliminate her attackers without any major harm to herself, I will send you the fully report in the morning, until then a MUSKEL Squad along with a platoon strength detachment of Section-2 has been deployed to protect the Children, an armoured unit shall arrive in about five minutes, lead by MUSKEL Sergeant Harkins, go with Shinji to the safe area and await further instructions."_

With that the phone clicked off and Misato just stared at the phone for a whole minute before shaking herself awake, she went to wake a sleepy Shinji and help him get ready to meet some of the most dangerous soldiers on the planet.

**PAGEPAGEPAGE** **  
**

Shinji had no idea what was happening.

First; Misato had woken him up at gods knows when. and then she forced some of his clothes onto him, Shinji blushing and splutter all the way, before dragging him out to the cramped hall of her apartment by his hand and into an awaiting red and black APC that was part of a massive armoured division and said APC he was currently occupied by the scariest soldiers he had ever seen, who were in turn wearing some of the most intimidating armour that he had ever seen; Black and red lined plates with a full helmet that included red-glowing optics.

Misato hadn't let go of his hand either, which made him feel...

Well...

He didn't know how it made him feel but he squeezed her hand a bit tighter regardless.

Gathering his courage, he made to ask his Mother/Sister/Wet-Dream what in the name of 01's purple colour scheme what was going on.

"M-misato, c-can I ask a q-question?"

He managed to stutter out, The boy was rather prone to a stutter when confused or upset, which to be fair was a rather understandable thing, all things guardian, who had previously had the look of someone who was simultaneously angry, worried and scared, gave a little jump at his voice before turning towards the boy.

"Of course you can Shin-Chan!" she had tried to add a level of false cheer to her voice, all it did was make him more nervous "Ask away! As long as you don't want to know my measurements!" even Shinji, who was rather clueless most of the time, could tell she trying too hard.

"Well, M-Misato what is going on? I m-mean all these soldiers and t-tanks a-and a-and..." Taking a deep breath to calm himself before he got too worked up, "What's g-going on? I mean, all t-this, j-just for me?"

Misato seemed to mull over his question over visibly, before deciding to answer his question with careful, measured words.

"Well... I helped take care of another Pilot, back when I worked in Germany, and well... there was an attack" She swallowed a bit before continuing, her tone stronger "an Assassination attempt was made, she's alright from what I hear, but we're not taking any chances with your safety"

At the phrase assassination attempt, Shinji's stomach dropped.

"Assassination..."he mumbled out quietly, his voice cut with fear, dark thoughts of what could possibly happen to him. Misato, of course, wouldn't let the boy drown in his fear. perhaps if she hadn't been as tired she would have been less inclined to intrude on the boys.

As it were, she was exhausted, scared and very angry, so she did away with her normal restraint that she used around the boy, gripping his hand tighter and throwing her arm over his shoulder in a tight embrace, she stayed with him like this for several seconds with Shinji blushing red like a tomato, but hesitantly returning the awkward hug, before Misato decided to speak.

"Shinji..." she was close to him, he could feel her warm breath on his ear and it sent delightfully guilty shivers down his spine.

"I know that you don't need this on top of everything else, that this is just another weight on you, but listein to me when say this, please" She took a deep breath, which sent another delightfully warm breath of air over his ear, before continuing to speak. "try not to worry about this, okay? let me handle this burden, alright, Shinj, I don't want you to run yourself ragged with worry, okay."

Shinji could have sait a lot of things, expressed himself, how ever inelegantly with his words, how she had made him feel, instead he just looked up at her and smiled. The moment was ruined by the sounds of one of the Special Forces soldier crying.

**PAGEPAGEPAGE**

His name was Adler Langley and he was with any question of a doubt, a giant ass-hole.

The father of two girls and the husband to two woman, not to mention one of the most lethal soldiers to ever walk the earth, with the Medal of Honour being awarded to him for his work in defeating the Fascist Dictatorship that had arisen from France after Second Impact; he had one of the highest kill counts on record and was on of the first soldiers ever to under go the 'Cybernetic Combat Reinforcement Operation'.He was equally as lethal with a gun as he was with the standard issue long blade issued to the UN Special Forces.

If Asuka got her beauty and Intelligence from Kyoko, she got her fighting strength and tactical mind from him.

He stalked though his Estate, mood foul, his eldest daughter had been assaulted, with NERV's security teams turning out to be completely useless at their jobs, with the assailants apparently having just strolled through security and going straight for his bit back a curse at their incompetence, he had entrusted his daughter to them, and they had failed to protect her.

If he was going to be honest with himself, he didn't send the girl to NERV to save the world or to continue his dead wife's work, he did so he wouldn't have to deal with an emotionally unstable child.

She was damaged, just like her mother, that was too plain to see with his eyes and he just didn't have with in him nurture her, just couldn't deal with a child who required such care. He didn't need or want such a damaged child, Though his beloved second wife was of the opinion that he should take a more pro-active approach with his first-born and try and reconnect with the girl, but he generally tuned her out. But this was different, while he ignored Asuka most of the time in favour of the sane members of his family, even he could not ignore an attempt on the girls life, he was selfish ass, not a monster.

Part of him felt guilty, about just leaving the girl, after all her mother had just died and Asuka was the one to find her hanging corpse, he should have visited her more often, but every time he went to see her she just clammed-up, refusing to hold a conversation, and only answering in quiet and flat tones and generally just navel gazing when ever he was near.

His wife said that he scared the girl.

In all honesty felt that Asuka took after Kyoko too much.

He knew that the girl had picked up the same instability as her mother, an all consuming desire to be the best, to reach for the highest peaks of ability in the vain hope that someone would notice, that someone would care about them and their achievements and skills, that they would be recognized and loved for them. He still remembered how Kyoko had driven herself into exhaustion trying to out-do the Ikari woman.

He had seen the same kind of traits in Asuka and he wanted nothing to do with self-destructive girl, not when he had perfectly normal, if slightly hyper, child. So he had her sent of to train at NERV and he had never been happier to see the girl off; he could have a happy family with his sane wife and child and the girl was looked after by someone else from NERV.

He had it perfect; a beautiful and devoted wife, and an equally beautiful little girl with his unstable first-born sent away to train at NERV.

Until of course these assassins had tried to kill his broken first child. He would of course have to make his way to the NERV-03 Munich branch and visit the girl, he wasn't completely heartless and Claire would make him anyway, something he didn't enjoy, the child was so quite when ever he visited.

Though the was one good thing about this.

Mari loved to see EVA pilot of a her big sister after all.

**PAGEPAGEPAGE**

She stared at Ritsuko's tight and perfectly formed, grade-A for Ass, behind.

The good Doctor wore a tight black mini-skirt that seemed to hug her bottom perfectly, showing off its firmness and how it was just the right shape, why if she wanted to, she could just reach out and grab and just...

Maya Ibuki sighed gently enough that the objects of her wanting gaze didn't hear her, she had to stop to doing this to both herself and the Doctor.

It was wrong to just turn her boss, who she respected and looked up to, into some kind of sex object for her own personal enjoyment, it degraded both Dr Akagi and it only served to frustrated and upset herself, she should stop and just get over her crush on the older woman.

With that plan firmly in mind, she quickly set about admiring the woman's stocking covered legs. Maya could live with the guilt of eyeing up her boss.

Surprisingly, Maya had the healthiest sense of her sexuality in the room, she was gay and she had a crush on her sexy boss, that was it really. No big issues with her homosexuality, when she had come out her parents had surprised but had been accepting, the others in Central Dogma were not so simple.

Aoba had huge commitment issues and generally acted like an ass to cover up his insecuties; while Hyuga was just so unsure of himself with in regards to women, which was a pity because if actually made a move on Misato she would have totally gone with it.

The less that was said about the Commander and Kozo the better.

Maya stared covertly at her superior for around ten minutes, occasionally checking the readings from the sensor for any Blue-Patterns. She was mid way through a rather detailed fantasy, it involved what she would do if she could get some rope and a drunken Ritsuko and Misato, when the shrill sound of the Angel Alarm snapped her out of her fantasy and sent her nearly spiralling off of her chair.

"BLOOD PATTERN BLUE DETECTED! ANGEL CODENAMED RAMIEL!" Maya flinched at the shrill volume of Hyuga's voice "OBTAINING VISUAL NOW!"

The main holographic screen flared on and the image sputtered before it settled on the image of what was basically a floating eight-sided diamond, it was the strangest looking of the Angels that they had seen so far, and it seemed to be emitting an aura of menace that was just as off putting as the strangely perfect angles of its body. "Where is Captain Katusragi?"

The sudden question seemed to lance through the scared silence of the Angel's appearance like a lance through a boil, snapping everyone back to their scenes. Before anyone could answer, the Captain herself ran through the door to Central Dogma, slightly flushed, but otherwise ready for duty.

"Sorry for the delay Sir, I was making sure that Shinji was alright in his temporary quarters when the alarm went off, I got here as fast I could Sir" the Captain slightly breathless and her speech was slightly rushed, " The Third-Child is in the Entry Plug undergoing pre-launch checks and he is awaiting orders, Sir"

She saluted smartly, awaiting her own orders. If the Commander felt anything was out of place, he said nothing, just raising an eyebrow slightly in response, before speaking again.

"We will begin combat operations as soon as the Pilot is able, prep for offensive operations"

As soon as the words 'offensive operations' was out of his mouth the Captain gave a sharp nod and started yelling, ordering people to prep the armament buildings and get the defensive installations on-line and ready to support the EVA, when it was launched. Maya quickly busied herself with the analysis of the Angel's AT-Field, to try to predict its combat abilities, and to warn of energy spikes that would indicate an attack. All the panic, the action and drama and the fact that they were defending all that was left of humanity.

Working with NERV... It was the best thing she had ever done.

**PAGEPAGEPAGE**

Working with NERV was the worst decision he had ever made.

Well... not the worst, while fighting the Angels was pretty scary and painful there were pluses; like living with Misato, she was the kindest person he had ever met, not to mention he had the first real friends he ever had here...

Well... maybe it wasn't all bad, he could live the piloting, maybe if he got to live with Misato... That is if she didn't just decide that she had gotten fed up with him and abandon him. That had actually been a reoccurring dream that had been haunting him lately; Misato would just leave him for some reason, sometimes he would know why, others she would just leave, taking Pen-Pen with her leaving him alone in the apartment, crying and shaking and just feeling more pathetic than usual.

He usually woke up around then, and in a sleep induced paranoia, he would start making breakfast and cleaning the apartment, all in a rather manic hope that if he was useful Misato wouldn't, she wouldn't leave him. He was so pathetic some times...

Squirming a bit in the LCL of the Entry Plug as he waited for his orders before launching into combat. He always hated the waiting the most. Fortunately, he didn't have to wait long, a view screen appeared into his line of sight, it showed a good portion of Central Dogma; he could see his father and the Sub-Commander and the 'Bridge Bunnies' as Misato called them, said Operations Director Stood in the centre of the screen ready to give him his orders.

"Ah, Misato, what do you want for dinner? some rice and pork, or maybe ramen would be nice for tonight?

The reactions of the Command Staff were mixed; the Bridge Bunnies chuckled amongst themselves, the Sub-Commander rolled his eyes, but he smiled a bit.

His father didn't really react save for raising a single eye-brow.

Misato just smiled at him good naturedly "How 'bout we just get some take-out tonight? Hm"

"That would be nice, Misato"

Her smile widened a bit before her face levelled off and she went full soldier mode.

"Shinji, the Angel is hovering about 500 meters above around in the approximative middle of the city and has deployed a drill bit, it will take some time before it will breach the armour layers, we will need you to take it out before it can breach them. To fulfil that objective you will be deployed 2.5 kilometers away from the Angel, far outside any of the previous Angels effective ranged offensive capabilities, and a Position-Cannon will be deployed in a weapons build to your left"

Shinji nodded at the plan, it was simple enough so far. "

From there" Misato continued "you are to engage the Angel, and hopeful destroy it with the Positron Cannon, which according to the good Doctor Akagi" Said doctor just huffed at her friends humor "is our most powerful ranged weapon currently at our disposal, with luck it'll finish the damned thing in one shot, any questions?"

He just shook his head in a negative.

"Good, EVA Lunch!"

With that Shinji was launched by magnetic-rails at twice the speed of sound, the gees always made his stomach flop, towards the surface to face the Angel, and for once he though that it would be a relatively easy fight, he was further out than any of the previous Angels, and he had a really big fucking gun on his side, not to mention the power hug that he and Misato had shared had boosted his confidence, so for once he was feeling pretty sure of himself.

His new found confidence didn't last once he reached the surface though.

The impact of the Angel's beam certainly got rid of it And in its place came agonizing heat.

**PAGEPAGEPAGE**

Everything had started out so well.

The had a plan, an actual working bloody plan! Not like the first two, they had strategy that had the highest chance of success, they had worked with all the known information and had planned accordingly; placing Shinji outside of its believed maximum range and arming him with the most powerful weapon in their armoury, It would have work Goddamn it!

Then Angel had fired on him with the most powerful Particle Beam they had ever seen the second he surfaced from the Cages.

"Pilots vitals are failing! He's going into shock!"

The panicked shout from Maya may as well have been a kick to the kidneys for Misato, the kid she played parent with for the past two months was getting cooked inside of his Entry Plug in soup of LCL and there was absolutely nothing in her power that she could do to help him, the lift that had ascended up in was now melted slagged, fused in place from the heat. The beam the crystal Angel was firing had scrambled the detention codes for the block that Shinji was standing on, so that was another option had been lost for the moment.

The inside of Shinji's plug was in box-out on the main screen, where Central Dogma were viewing Shinji's demise via tight beam communications that allowed them to see her boy being boiled alive in his own LCL on a HD-Hologram.

And now his heart was stopping, and there was literally nothing she could do to save him. Shinji was going to die alone. So Misato did what she did best in an emergency; she started yelling out orders to save her boy.

And no one would stop her.

World be fucked.

**PAGEPAGEPAGE**

All he felt was pain

The Angel's beam was boiling him alive, the LCL roared and all he felt was pain, couldn't even move his EVA because of the restraints that were meant to stop the EVA from launching to the sky when it reached the surface, and these same restraints were going to get him killed, and all he could do was scream.

He tried in vain to break free of the restraints, but they were just too strong, having been designed to resist an berserker Evangelion and hyper-Sonic speeds, he had no chance of ripping his way free from his containment, which meant he was trapped and dying horribly.

All that he had managed to do was scream while he died; crying out for someone to save him from the agony, he cried out to his Father, to his dead Mother, to his Aunt and Uncle.

To Misato

After about five minutes of torture the pain started to fade, becoming sort of distant, like it was coming from a far distance, he still felt it, but it wasn't as urgent, he felt himself grow tired, his lids heavy and the strength to fight went out of his body, stopped screaming, to tired to fear for himself anymore.

Perhaps it was for the best he thought, that if he died here, at least then he wouldn't have to suffer anymore, the pain would finally be over and he could just stop intruding on other people's lives; like had done to his Aunt and Uncle, not to mention Misato.

It would better for them if died, then they could stop pretending that they cared about him.

After all, if his own father didn't want him, who else would?

As his view faded to black and his screams faded, he finally felt at peace, it was over and he wouldn't have to hurt anymore, he wouldn't have to suffer anymore, he wouldn't have try and continue the futill struggle to find some love and happiness.

It was over at last.

_ "Goddamn it... Get... out... going... to... d-die-e-e...!"_

He couldn't really hear what Misato very well, the roaring of the boiling LCL and the shrill scream of Ramiel's laser beam, not to mention the static that was generated by said beam, all he could make out was 'going to die' from the noise that surrounded him.

_"Misato... is in trouble?"_

He had forgotten about her, in his own pain and fear, if he died, then there was no one left to protect her, she would die, the Angel would kill him and then it would go on and kill her and everyone else.

His eyes glowed and he screamed once more, not in pain this time though.

But in pure, blinding, rage.

**PAGEPAGEPAGE**

"Goddammit! I want the blasting charges prepped and blasted as soon as possible! if we don't get him out of here he is going to die! Get them fucking ready! Now!"

Misato had quite the set of lungs on her, shouting out orders for the tech to arm the Charges that were placed around the launch tube, they would sent said tube and Shinji falling down to the Geo-Front were both Shinji and the Evangelion Unit could be recovered, before special armour layers would be deployed to prevent the Angelic bastard from following them.

It was chaos in Central Dogma as her minions tried to get orders done, as they tried to save Shinji's life.

Misato gazed around the room to take in the hectic work, useless until they entered combat again. All the tech-heads under Akagi were working to try and figure out how the fuck Ramiel was doing what it was doing, Aoba was on the phone to NERV's Rescue and Recovery squads, telling them to be ready to grab the EVA and Shinji as fast as possible and Hyuga was yelling at the JSDF to try and get them to offer some covering fire, so far he hadn't been successful, the Sub-Commander was visibly worried and was looking like he might actually just take the phone off of Hyuga and personally yell for fire support.

The Commander was just staring at the screen hands tented in front of him, as if this whole disaster was just another puzzle to solve.

"At-Field Raising! Pilot's Synchronization Rising! Now at 87%!"

Maya's panicked voice cut through the havoc, everyone turning to stare at Shinji an the Evangelion, and so did Misato. He had stopped screaming, and now, he was roaring in a blood-curdling rage that sent shivers up Misato's spine and chilled her blood.

He was screaming and the EVA was roaring along with him, loud enough that it had shattered glass for miles around and the concrete and steel near by was starting to crack.

It roared though the Angel's attack, and then it jumped.

It ripped its way out of the restraints that had held the EVA's struggles for five minutes while simultaneously being blasted by a fucking laser cannon, and Shinji had ripped through it like tissue paper, and went up to through the sky.

And up.

And up.

Before coming down 1 kilometre away from the Angel, having crossed 1.5 kilometres in one, bounding leap that shattered the current record for both hight and distance in a single jump, the impact shattering the reinforced ground beneath it.

It let loose another roar, eyes glowing a bloody red, before it broke into a run, once again shattering Asuka's current EVA land/speed record.

**PAGEPAGPAGE**

Her mouth was hanging open, she knew it was and quite frankly she didn't give a fuck.

The Third-Child, who she really should call by name, Misato always gets annoyed at her for calling him that, had done the impossible.

Well, not impossible, but the highly unlikely! getting an EVA to move like that with only a few months of training? far outside the expected abilities of what a rookie was capable of doing, even taking into account his Berserker abilities.

"Dr Akagi!"

The sound of her faithful assistant snapped her out of her stupper.

"What is it Maya" She answered as she turned and made her way as fast as decently possibly in heels towards Maya's workstation, where her assistant was had the rather odd look of someone who didn't know whether to be scared or confused.

"Its the data from the A-10 Connectors, Its like he's... I don't know!, its like he's halfway to Berserker or something!"

Ritsuko blinked a bit in confusion before, pushing Maya's chair gently to the side so she could get a proper look at the information. A few seconds of reading indeed showed that Shinji was going through what could be called an 'Immature Berserker State' This was where instead of Shinji's Psycho-Graph going completely strange, it only seemed to 'dip' towards the state.

His brain waves were highly active, as was expected from an Evangelion pilot, and as he approached a true Berserker State, his brain seemed try and simultaneously go into a psychotic low, and the high level patterns that was required for the strongest of At-Fields.

It was only recreated once in laboratory setting, with the Second Child in Germany when the girl was about nine. They had used a mixture of modifications to Neural Connectors to allow a dangerously potent connection with the girls EVA that had reduced the girl to a barely aware animal, closure to the EVA's true nature than a human, and cocktail of Psycho-active drugs and combat-stimulants to get the desired fight or flight response and the removal of the restraints that were build into EVA The girl was turned into psychotic animal who killed over four hundred personnel in NERV-03 hotlabs, before she had finally tired and passed out.

The lone survivor, a Dr Rhineheart had managed to develop what he believed to be a more controlled version he called 'The Beast'.

Gendo had banned it on compassionate grounds.

And Shinji Ikari was entering a state where a nine year old girl had killed four hundred people. So she did the sensible thing, and told her boss.

"Sir!" She yelled at Gendo though the panic of Central Dogma

"He's entering a Berserker State!, He's approaching it rapidly, if he enters it as he currently is, he might not stop at the Angel, We... need... to...

The sight of Unit-01 jumping on to the Angel and punching it hard enough that itscrytal skin cracked was more than enough to grab everyone's attention.

**PAGEPAGEPAGE**

Shinji barely felt anything as he hit the ground, the combination of adrenaline and anger and fear having numbed him to everything except, for his pure contempt for the Angel head of him, which was funny in a kind of morbid way, because Shinji had never really hated anything before, not even his father.

With one last roar he ran like never ran before. He wasn't thinking as he charged towards his target, his mind having been reduced to an animalistic fury, all he would do was fight and kill , that was all he could do. To protect Misato he would crush the world under his heel and crush his foes body in dust.

Which, from the point of view of Ramiel, was a rather upsetting thing.

That of course meant that it was no surprise that the Angel had stopped using its more powerful charged shoots in favor of its fast firing, but weaker, beam-spam attack.

Which just served to piss him off further.

He charged through the beams, his At-Field strong enough that he could just ignore glancing hits, that wasn't to say that they didn't hurt, the impacts were agonizing, more painful than anything he had ever felt. He was just too pissed to care.

He ran, dodging beams and running through the smoke and shrapnel that they scattered to the air, his armor blackened in places were he had caught some glancing hits, still he ran. Closing the distance between him and the Angel, he kept pumping his arms and legs, the city of Tokyo-03 going past in a blur.

Running until he was close enough to the Angel that he could see his own reflection on its hide. And then, once again, He jumped.

Landing on one of the Angel's angular faces, he struggled to get a grip, before raising his fist to the sky and bringing it down. The resulting shock-wave could be felt in Osaka.

**PAGEPAGEPAGE**

Bitches love cliff-hangers! love cliff-hangers!


	3. Chapter 3

His fist was raised mid-strike for the finishing blow, a roar on his lips that was mirrored by his EVA, he had felt it. The rush and sheer adrenalin of victory and the strength that had gone to his heart at his realisation, he had actually acted on his own for once, instead of just going along with what his father and Misato said, had done something for himself.

He had ripped his way out of his binds and charged the Angel with a fury he wasn't even sure was capable of feeling, he had dodged laser beams and had jumped onto the Angel and had smashed his fist into it's crystal face, cracking said face.

He had done it all to protect Misato.

No one would ever threaten her again, not as long as he had his cybernetic-god under his command, he could live with being a Pilot, if it meant that no one ever harm her again.

With this new found conviction he brought his fist down on to the Angel, intending to end it here and now.

It was pity really, that Angel caught him mid punch with a laser beam. Point blank.

It hurt.

**PAGEPAGEPAGE**

A woman walked down the halls of the NERV-03 hospital at a sedate pace, having decided to take her time in visiting her step-daughter. She had long chocolate brown hair that reached down to the middle of her back and a pair of thin silver framed glasses that went rather nicely with her green eyes, she wore a black formal suit that did a rather good job of displaying her figure , while at the same time showing off nothing. It came with a skirt that was perhaps a tad too short, but complimented her long and toned legs rather magnificently.

Her name was Claire Langley, loving wife, mother of a darling child, and step-mother to another young girl.

And she was a horrible person.

Well, it wasn't that clear cut, she had acted like a complete, inconsiderate whore to both her step-daughter and to her mother when she had first started to Adler. It was gross breach of her professional trust to both Kyoko and Asuka, she shouldn't had an affair with a mentally ill woman's husband were she could hear them going at it against her closet wall.

They certainly shouldn't have done it were her six year old little girl could affair itself, falling in love with her husband, was not something that she regretted, Kyoko was never going to get better, that was a fact, she felt no shame in falling love with Adler. What she did feel ashamed about was how she had let Asuka hear herself and Adler.

The fact that she when had been having fun with Adler in the back-seat of his car when she should have been checking-up of the poor woman, if she hadn't been giving her current husband a blow job it would have her that had found the poor things body, really rubbed salt into the wound.

Not Asuka, it never should have been that child.

But no, she had been young and caught up in the romance, the drama, of falling in love and the whirling emotions of love and guilt and lust that had consumed her. It perhaps wasn't the best excuse to explain her failings, far from the best actually, but it was the truth, she had never meant to hurt anyone, least of all the poor, damaged child that was Asuka.

And Asuka was damaged, it was plain to her trained eye that the girl had huge confidence issues, not to mention a rather severe case of PTSD, Claire knew that she still suffered from nightmares from when she had found her mother, not to mention the fact that Asuka refused completely to bond with anyone besides a select few.

Once, when Asuka was nine, Claire had tried to pick her up and sit Asuka on her lap, to try and bond with the girl. She had screamed like a banshee, clawing and biting at her, she still had the marks from where she was bitten!

A nine year old girl in a frilly yellow dress had hated her enough that her touch was enough to set her screaming.

Claire had never hated herself more than at that moment, it was absolute proof that her hopes that Asuka hadn't understood her role in her mother's deaths, that she had been to young to truly comprehend what had happened, that perhaps Claire could try and connect with the girl, had been shattered.

The words she had said... No child should have such _bitterness _in her heart...

There was a reason why she had liked it when the Katsuragi woman was made Asuka's guardian in NERV; she had brought out the best in Asuka, under her care and nurture Asuka had made her first friends, had excelled at sports and arts and music. Not to mention her college career, if it hadn't been for Misato encouraging Asuka, she wouldn't have got her Degree.

With Misato prodding at Asuka... The child had simply been _amazing._

And then Misato had left to lead the NERV military in Tokyo-03 and Asuka had reverted back to her normal sullen self.

Which was a pity, because while her current handler, a 'Mr Ryoji Kaji', did care for Asuka a lot, he wasn't quite what Asuka needed. Which was someone who would push and prod Asuka, the teen was far too prone to getting into depressed funks that Mr Kaji just wasn't that good at shifting as Ms Katsuragi was.

And when Asuka got depressed she would just lay around getting deep into a cycle of self-hatred and misery.

Asuka of had rough in terms of her psych; with a literal textbook worth psychological disorders including: PTSD, severe confidence issue with a need to reinforce her fragile psych with constant demands for praise, a minor cause of an Electra Complex when it came to Misato and Kaji. Not to mention the girls attitude to sex, She refused to see it as something that can be seen in an emotionally beneficial light. Believing that people only used one another.

Claire was a well trained Psychologist; She could see all of the problems a mile away, and damn if she was to scared of the child's reaction to try and talk to her about it.

Still, not everything about the child's life was a complete disaster. Misato loved her that much was obvious, Mr Kaji also held a great deal of affection for the girl and she had received one of the best educations in the world.

Not to mention she had a loving little sister

Mari was such a good girl, and Asuka seemed to love her right back, which actually surprised Claire, though it was a happy kind of surprised.

That was why Claire had sent Mariel on ahead of her to see Asuka first, Asuka was always in a better mood after seeing Mari.

Claire might have made some rather foolish choices in life, but she was far from an idiot.

**PAGEPAGEPAGE**

All he felt was the burning of his skin.

His own skin actually , it wasn't just sympathetic pain from the Evangelion, it was his real, physical skin that had boiled and blistered with impact of the Angel's beam. His entire front was a deep red like and his skin was covered in weeping blisters that were agonising and parts of his skin had actually burned black.

Surprisingly, for once it wasn't his pain and injuries that was the main cause of his screams, it was the fact that he had _failed_ so spectacularly at defeating the Angel, he had been so close! a few more seconds he would have shattered the Angel and it would be over, but he had failed and in so much and he had failed and now Misato was going to DIE!

He would have cried if weren't for the fact that his tear ducts were scorched shut.

He settled for screaming.

It was a rather frightening combination of both agonized pain caused by his boiled flesh, and anger at his failure, a failure that ripped at him on deepest level, a failure that caught the attention of something greater than what he could have ever imagined...

The change was subtle, but he noticed it almost immediately, a scent, filled the normally copper-scented LCL; one that reminded him of Misato's lavender perfume, the strangely appealing smell of Rei that was a mixture of LCL and her own natural scent and another that he simply couldn't describe, that belonged to someone he couldn't remember.

The smell.. stirred something in him, something he had only recently started to feel, and even then it wasn't as strong as this... This time his breath came up in short gasps, he had never felt an arousal this strong in his life before.

Then she appeared.

The most beautiful woman he had ever seen; she had a light purple skin that was like lilac and her face was like a beautiful combination of Misato and Rei, taking most of her features from Misato, with the chin and nose belonging to Rei, her splayed out behind her, framing her face magnificently.

She was also completely naked.

He would have blushed, if he wasn't already red as a tomato.

Said woman reached out and stroked his cheek, hand running up and down his face in a way that was both painful and exhilarating...

_" I have a deal for you, beautiful Child... Tell me, what would you do to save her?"_

**PAGEPAGEPAGE**

The second Unit-01 had hit the ground the Colonel had sprung into action; ordering the Defensive Installations to open fire on the Angel in order to cover the ERU teams that were being deployed to pull Shinji's ass outta the fire.

Shinji's Falcon Punch had seemed to have done the trick though, the Angel didn't even try to raise a Defensive AT-Field, the Missiles and Mega-Scale Cannon rounds were actually impacting the Angel's Crystalline hide, they weren't doing any real damage, but the fact remained that Shinji had wounded the Cthulhu wannabe so bad that it couldn't use its AT_Field in an offensive or defensive capacity.

Aoba counted that as a win.

"Alright people! I want the bombardment to continue for as long as we have the ammo or it does the decent thing and dies!"

The Colonel gave the best motivational speeches.

On the main holographic display that dominated Central Dogma, they were all treated to the rather spectacular display of a badly wounded Angel that had a huge crater on its side that had cracks and fissures spreading out from it, with a light-show of explosions impacting against it, with the light from said explosions reflecting and refracting against the Crystal being that made for an oddly beautiful sight.

"AT-Field is still not rising! The damage that the EVA is stopping it from using for combat, only low levels being used for levitation and moment currently being detected!" He shouted over the general din towards Colonel Misato and Commander Ikari, both them just gave him a slight nod as confirmation on the information.

The barrage continued for several minutes while ERU dragged the entry plug out of the EVA and cut Shinji out of the Plug, while a group of supped up tow trucks dragged the EVA towards the nearest Geofront entrance, they didn't just blow the armor plating above the EVA because they didn't know the condition of the Pilot, the shock might kill him if they just dropped him.

So they had to get the kid out manually, a really dangerous task, espcially when there was freakin' Angel floating above you that was getting the rough treatment by the Defense Installations. Thankfully the Evangelion Recovery Unit were a bunch of insane adreallene-junkie hero types, who wre more than happy to rush in and save a kid right under the nose of an Eldritch Abomination.

A burst of static near the walky talky that Hyuga was using to coordinate with the ERU caught his attention, he watched as Makato spoke into the device and watched as his face went pale and ran over to the Colonel.

Hyuga handed the Walkie-Talkie to the Colonel and the woman listened for a few seconds before her face went pale.

"WHAT!"

**PAGEPAGEPAGE**

She had floated towards him and had gently seated herself in his lap, one of hands kept on stroking his cheek, while the other was now rubbing his chest. all in all Shinji wouldn't have been surprised if this turned out to be a very strange wet dream.

The woman brought her face to his and nuzzled his other cheek, bringing her lips close to his and with her breath sending shivers down his spine, she then spoke in a voice that was equally as beautiful as the woman.

_"My most sweetest child, I have come to... Offer you a deal, would you like to hear it?"_

She had framed it as a question, but with that voice, Shinji had no chance of refusing, all he could do was nod numbly.

The woman, there was no chance in hell that she was a lady, brought her face from his cheek, but not before nibbling on his ear-lob, and came into view smiling and brought her other had up to replace her cheek.. She had far too many sharp teeth for his comfort.

_" I offer you the power to shield that you love, to ensure their safety and secure your happiness, with this... Gift all that you desire, all that you wish to defend, Can. Be Yours." _She had peppered the edges of his mouth in an almost kiss that had made his breathing painful.

_"Well, oh most kind Lord, will you accept? Will you take the power to take what you want and shield what you love? Do want this? "_

If he had been thinking straight he would have questioned it more, but he wasn't and she had actually asked what he had wanted! Not even Misato asked _him_ that.

So he nodded and the woman smiled and mashed her lips to his, her tongue going through to his lips and tangling with his own. H elet out a lust filled groan at the new sensations, reveling in them. He had never felt something like this. So great was his feelings that he forwent his normal shyness and buried a hand her hair as another wrapped around her waist.

It was perhaps one of Shinji's greatest moments in life.

It was a pity that the woman had to go and ruin it by exploding in a shower of gore.

**PAGEPAGEPAGE**

Her name was Mari, she was six and a half years of age and she was fucking adorable.

Well, that was what her sister had told her, though Mama had told her not to say the word 'fucking' but Asuka had used it and in the way that little children were want to do, she had taken that as a sign that it was alright to use.

She was holding the hand of one of the nurses, her Mama having said that she should go on ahead to see her Sis while Mama talked to the Docters. Mari didn't mind that much really, Asuka tons of fun when Mama and Papa weren't around, 'Cause Papa kinda scared Asuka a bit and she got real quite and wouldn't play with her or show her cool Kung-Fu moves.

So Mari was in a exuberant mood as she, literally, skipped down the halls of the smelly and creepy hospital that gave her the creeps. Her hand being held by the pretty nurse who had blond hair.

She was going to see her Sister! The most awesome Sister in the Whole. Wide .World! She drove a giant robot! Asuka had actually sneaked her to the lower levels once to _see_ her giant robot! It had been Awesome-sauce! It had been red and giant and awesome! That moment had cemented in her mind Asuka as the greatest person in the whole world.

She was a giant robot driver! Who was literally training fight giant monsters! It was like something out of one of those asian cartoons"

(Authors Note: Little Mari is in for a rather rude awakening, Isn't she?)

In her hand that wasn't currently being held by the Pretty Nurse-Lady, she held a worn out Mr Monkey plushy that Asuka had given to her _years _ago, Asuka had said that her Mama had got it for her, and she had wanted to give to her to have it. That had happened ages ago and Mari didn't really remember much, but she did remember that Asuka had been crying... and in the way that fiver year olds are allowed to be, she thought that if she gave Asuka back her doll, she would feel better.

So Mari skipped down the hall monkey in hand and the other held by the nurse, a ten-gigawatt smile on her face.

"We're here, this is your sister's room" The nurse said quietly to child.

Mari's smile just got brighter, something the nurse would have deemed impossible, and ran into her Sisters room with all the manners of a hyper-active five-year old.

The second she entered the room the loud greating died in her mouth, the sight that greeted had stunned her so.

It was her beloved sister, Asuka, and her Really, Really handsome minder, they were locked in an awkward hug; Asuka's arms wrapped around his torso and her head buried in his chest while Mr Ryoji stroked her hair with his one unbandaged arm.

Mari quickly came to the wrong conclusion

"FUCK! Asuka you got boyfriend?"

**PAGEPAGEPAGE**

A bit shorter than the last chapter, but I feel that trying to force words gets you nowhere.

And yes, Asuka has thought her impressionable little sister who to swear, like a sailor or an Evangelion Pilot.

Asuka's revenge is often subtle, like a battle tank.


	4. Chapter 4

I'm going to give this story a bit of TLC, so don't be surpraised that it isn't getting updated, I'm working on a better version.


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